Speaker 1: To Shi have eight thirty fift about KIRCD talk station.
Speaker 1: A very happy Monday today made you an extra special
Speaker 1: happy because the return of Mandy Gunnas Sakara, author of
Speaker 1: Y'all Fired, a Southern Bellows Guide. You're restoring federalism and
Speaker 1: draining the swamp we had around in October when the
Speaker 1: book first came out. She's been at the center of
Speaker 1: the US energy and environmental policy for a full decade
Speaker 1: from the Senate cloak room of the Oval Office of
Speaker 1: veteran environmental attorney, energy strategist, and communicator, served during President
Speaker 1: Trump's first term as chief of staff at the US
Speaker 1: Environmental Protection Agency, currently a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation,
Speaker 1: and welcome back. It is a real pleasure to have
Speaker 1: you back on the show. Mandy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, good to be with you. Brian.
Speaker 1: I mean, can I just sort of sum up what
Speaker 1: I think your perception is that this DOGE Department is
Speaker 1: like the answer to your dreams.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you summed it up.
Speaker 1: Well, it really is.
Speaker 2: And it's man, it's such a beautiful thing to see
Speaker 2: because having been on the inside, even in my position
Speaker 2: as chief of staff and the access to the information
Speaker 2: that I had it was hard to paint the whole picture.
Speaker 2: You could pinpoint specific types of waste, fraud or abuse,
Speaker 2: or redundancies and efficiencies. You could pinpoint those sorts of things.
Speaker 2: But it really is a beautiful thing where you have
Speaker 2: someone like Elon and his really talented team of software
Speaker 2: engineers going and looking at the data and then painting
Speaker 2: a big picture in ways that all of us can
Speaker 2: understand and all of us can see, and is an
Speaker 2: absolute misuse of taxpayer resources. So yeah, it's an answer
Speaker 2: to a lot of prayers.
Speaker 1: Actually, well, sunlight, it's a great disinfect and lord knows,
Speaker 1: we're getting a lot of it. And one of the
Speaker 1: problems that I'm sure you probably during your period of
Speaker 1: time in the administration, we're as frustrated as anybody else
Speaker 1: the obstructionism that comes when people that are responsible for
Speaker 1: the oversight of our dollars, subcommittees, committees, the congressmen, the
Speaker 1: congress women, the senators, when they're told basically go to
Speaker 1: hell when they ask for information.
Speaker 2: Yeah, really, I know, I know, it's really frustrating, and
Speaker 2: it's you know, that is part of their responsibility. Their
Speaker 2: responsibility is to report back to the public how they're
Speaker 2: using these funds and what it's actually doing. But it's
Speaker 2: not just the members of Congress. I mean, it's also
Speaker 2: these bureaucrats, these entrenched deep state bureaucrats. And here's the truth.
Speaker 2: There is a crisis of expertise on Capitol Hill. Frankly,
Speaker 2: you have a lot of people there that don't really
Speaker 2: know what they're doing. So they're wholly dependent on deep
Speaker 2: state bureaucrats who've been working at their job for thirty
Speaker 2: years to give them information they don't otherwise know how
Speaker 2: to get. So that's how the deep state works. They
Speaker 2: don't give them all the information. Maybe they give them
Speaker 2: a little drip drip here. But it's been many decades
Speaker 2: of this type of imbalance between an agency funded to
Speaker 2: eight to the tune of eight billion dollars and as
Speaker 2: EP is an example, with the oversight staff of less
Speaker 2: than two million dollars trying to perform oversight, and so
Speaker 2: you just have this massive mismatch and the resulting consequences
Speaker 2: is just decades of layers of complex and us not
Speaker 2: knowing how our resources are spent well.
Speaker 1: And it's also seemed to be very obviously a just
Speaker 1: simple lack of care of how money is spent. I mean,
Speaker 1: Musk over the weekend was talking about, you know, over
Speaker 1: looking at through the the Department of Treasury, right Treasury department,
Speaker 1: and he says, you know, I was told that there
Speaker 1: are currently over one hundred million dollars a year of
Speaker 1: in timement payments individual with no social Security number, even
Speaker 1: a temporary ID number. And see, you know, he pulls
Speaker 1: the room and Treasury he says, what percentage of that
Speaker 1: is unequivocal obvious fraud? And the consensus in the room
Speaker 1: was at least fifty billion dollars of it. That's something
Speaker 1: that's is simple to fix. Look, no social Security number,
Speaker 1: no ID, you don't get any money. How hard is that?
Speaker 2: It shouldn't be difficult at all. But that's what these agencies,
Speaker 2: they've just become all about, constantly asking for more money.
Speaker 2: There is no incentive for the everyday bureaucrat to find
Speaker 2: ways to be incentive, to find ways to cut costs
Speaker 2: and to be truthful about the expenditure of those costs.
Speaker 2: And there's this mentality, this culture in DC that people
Speaker 2: are almost entitled to these taxpayer resources. And when you
Speaker 2: come in and you ask questions, they like to pretend
Speaker 2: like they're these global do gooders, and they're saying, oh,
Speaker 2: but this poor person is going to lose access to
Speaker 2: these resources that they really need. Meanwhile, that person isn't
Speaker 2: even getting the funds. To the extent they're getting any
Speaker 2: it's barely enough to actually live. But you know what's
Speaker 2: coming off the top. A fair amount is coming off
Speaker 2: the top and going to nonprofits that either pad them
Speaker 2: personally or their relatives or just grow the power of
Speaker 2: the left, which is ultimately what they want.
Speaker 1: Yeah, non governmental organizations NGOs, you know, and quite a
Speaker 1: the ole we're five oh one C three, we're not
Speaker 1: for profit. Yeah, but you're making a salary of four
Speaker 1: hundred and five hundred thousand dollars a year. Is president
Speaker 1: or CEO the five oh one C three? I mean,
Speaker 1: that's what's happening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly right. And it's it's so discussing. It's
Speaker 2: so many of them is going to the spouses of people.
Speaker 2: Just look at the net worth of someone like Samantha Power.
Speaker 2: She was the administrator that had essentially of USAID and
Speaker 2: her net worth grew five times. I think that's right.
Speaker 2: It's around that it's a significant number. Grew five times
Speaker 2: her salary has been the same salaries for bureaucrats are
Speaker 2: typically capped out around one hundred and eighty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Yet somehow she has a mass a multi million dollar
Speaker 2: fortune and it just leaves you scratching your head, Huh,
Speaker 2: where did that money come from? And it's most likely
Speaker 2: because it was funnel to nonprofits of which she or
Speaker 2: her family was sitting on the board, and they get
Speaker 2: to reap the benefits of millions of dollars of taxpayer
Speaker 2: funds going into their back pocket, and they cover it
Speaker 2: up by saying, well, we're helping the poor in the world,
Speaker 2: We're giving people in Africa access to water and food,
Speaker 2: but really they are just patting their own personal coffers.
Speaker 1: Well, and as I read through the list of these
Speaker 1: things that the Doge has revealed and the comments from
Speaker 1: the senators that you know, I had no idea that
Speaker 1: this money was being spent this way, And I said,
Speaker 1: wait a second, aren't you responsible for the power of
Speaker 1: the purse? I mean, you go ahead and you allocate
Speaker 1: forty million dollars to USA, but then you stop. Somebody
Speaker 1: had to approve the project. But ultimately, you know, twenty
Speaker 1: million dollars goes to a sesame street show in Iraq,
Speaker 1: And then how much of that twenty million dollars really
Speaker 1: went to the sesame street show in a rock production.
Speaker 1: It didn't land in some corrupt officials pocket. They don't
Speaker 1: follow the trail of the money, and sob it just
Speaker 1: stops once the aid's been allocated to the general collective
Speaker 1: us AID fund.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, and it's there's no accountability and no oversight.
Speaker 2: And that's why you see the people who are screaming
Speaker 2: the most are the ones who have the most to
Speaker 2: lose in terms of this personal racket or money laundering scheme,
Speaker 2: if you will. That's that is what it is. These
Speaker 2: people are using their positions of trust and consequence to
Speaker 2: siphon money off to the side to their benefit. And
Speaker 2: they use the stories of people that most people would
Speaker 2: say like, yeah, they could use some help, or of
Speaker 2: course we would want to take care of these vulnerable populations.
Speaker 2: They use that as a cover for their own sick game.
Speaker 2: And those are the people who are sitting outside of
Speaker 2: USAID or some of these other areas that are throwing
Speaker 2: up their hands, and the Democrat members of Congress are
Speaker 2: at the front of the line because they are recipients
Speaker 2: of campaign donations from these people who are putting taxpayer
Speaker 2: resources in their own pocket.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's the to me, that is the most
Speaker 1: I don't I want to call it comical that they're
Speaker 1: screaming at the top of their lungs over these funds
Speaker 1: being identified, these outlandish, outrageous programs that no American could
Speaker 1: find straight faced legitimate. They're not saying that the money
Speaker 1: didn't go to these stupid programs like shrimp running on treadmills.
Speaker 1: They're just screaming about the general focus on USA and
Speaker 1: the fraud, waste abuse and defending it. For some reason.
Speaker 1: There's no denying here. There's no that didn't happen. That's
Speaker 1: a lie. Elon Musk is making that up.
Speaker 2: It's yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's it's just frustrating to
Speaker 2: see and I will say though, it's it's frustrating to
Speaker 2: see some of the reaction. But you know, those people
Speaker 2: are the minority now, and that is a really wonderful feeling,
Speaker 2: and the cats out of the bag. I mean, again,
Speaker 2: those of us who are on the inside. Some of
Speaker 2: it was the fact that we didn't really understand the
Speaker 2: links the deep State would go to cover their tracks,
Speaker 2: and they had decades to figure out ways to cover
Speaker 2: up their tracks, and they're very, very good at it.
Speaker 2: So we were all in there. You know, you're drinking
Speaker 2: from a fire hose is the words people often used
Speaker 2: to describe what it's like to go into these positions,
Speaker 2: And a lot of us went in not knowing that
Speaker 2: the tricks that the deep State would use not just
Speaker 2: to confuse, but to try to undermine and to hide
Speaker 2: what they were actually doing. All that's over. So it
Speaker 2: really is great to see Elon Musk, his team, Department
Speaker 2: of Government Efficiency, and most importantly, the American people see
Speaker 2: this and they're behind the president and his work one
Speaker 2: hundred and ten percent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know it as well as I do. Yeah, Mandy,
Speaker 1: that they've only scratched the surface. I mean, Elon Musk
Speaker 1: has identified some real low hanging fruit just in one
Speaker 1: USA department I mentioned the Treasury Department. He's worked there
Speaker 1: as long as he can get his access back centers
Speaker 1: for Medicare and Medicaid Service, National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, Department
Speaker 1: of Energy, and Lord Almighty, nobody wants me, that wants
Speaker 1: the military spending to be audited more than me. They
Speaker 1: can't even pass an audit seven or eight times in
Speaker 1: a row.
Speaker 2: Mandy, I know, and I'm sure I'm sure you've seen.
Speaker 2: There was an interview not too long ago of one
Speaker 2: of the one of the heads, one of the people
Speaker 2: who was responsible for these types of audits, and you know,
Speaker 2: she was just incredulous that people would wouldn't trust them. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we felled audits, but you don't understand what an audit
Speaker 2: is is essentially her response, and it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 2: Like again, this goes to there's this culture of people
Speaker 2: in DC that are so arrogant and so flippant about
Speaker 2: their very real responsibility, and when people come around asking
Speaker 2: basic questions that they cannot answer, they just they try
Speaker 2: to belittle you say that, well, you don't really understand it.
Speaker 2: If you were, if you were like me, you would understand.
Speaker 2: So yeah, look, Elon Musk is scratching the surface. This
Speaker 2: type of misuse and and miss expenditure of funds. It
Speaker 2: permeates every single agency. So there's there's a lot more
Speaker 2: to come, and I'm excited to see it for it
Speaker 2: to finally be exposed.
Speaker 1: A lot more to come and maybe even I'll keep
Speaker 1: my fingers crossed some criminal investigations into where this money
Speaker 1: has landed. Manny gives the car author of y'all Fired,
Speaker 1: a Southern bell's guide to restoring federalism and draining the swamp.
Speaker 1: She had an advance on Doge. This is what the
Speaker 1: book's about. And I'm sure, I said, I know she's
Speaker 1: seeing it just come all to fruition with it being
Speaker 1: ferreted out. Mandy. I got your book up on my
Speaker 1: blow page fifty five cars dot com so people can
Speaker 1: get a copy of it to the extent they haven't
Speaker 1: done it already, and I'll encourage them to do so.
Speaker 1: It's been great here talking with you. Keep up the
Speaker 1: great work and looking forward to another volume maybe uh
Speaker 1: something like along the aftermath lines.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what it's like after y'all fired. Yeah, well we'll
Speaker 2: come up with a gud talb. But thank you, thanks
Speaker 2: for having me, and thanks for the support.
Speaker 1: Well pleasure, Mandy. It's been a real treat.